There are still many questions for Ukraine after Trump and Putin's phone call. President Selenskyj praises that there should be a break in the attacks on the energy infrastructure. But what exactly was agreed?
In Ukraine, the reactions to the telephone conversation between US President Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin cautiously failed. Overall, the doubts that the Russian head of state was really interested in a ceasefire.
On Tuesday evening, President Wolodymyr Selenskyj gave a 30-minute online press conference. He repeated that his country was ready for a ceasefire. This also applies if it should be limited to air strikes to objects of the energy infrastructure.
Because only this is what Kremlin chief Putin wants to get involved in how the statements from Washington and Moscow show after the phone call. This would be a “positive result,” said Selenskyj. “Of course we have to know the details first,” said the Ukrainian president about the possible consent of Ukraine. This affects the question of how such a ceasefire is monitored independently.
A serious suspicion remains
In addition, Selenskyj expressed doubts that Putin is serious about a ceasefire. Putin and other top Russian politicians had always excluded a ceasefire without prior peace treaty in recent months. “He didn't change,” said Selenskyj about Putin and referred to the declaration of the Kremlin after Putin's phone call with Trump.
There is talk that Russia can only agree to a complete ceasefire if Ukraine no longer get military help from western countries. “He wants to weaken the Ukrainian army,” said Selenskyj. In this, Putin's actual goal in the conversations about a ceasefire.
The Ukrainian President also led the Russian drone attacks on Ukraine on Wednesday as an argument that Putin wanted to continue war.
The goal of a complete ceasefire missed
Most political commentators in Ukraine describe the telephone conversation between Washington and Moscow as a defeat for Trump. Her argument: The US President had approached Putin with the aim of achieving a complete ceasefire. Putin hadn't agreed.
“Trump understands that Putin showed him his finger,” said Kiev political scientist Wadym Denysenko in a post on Facebook. But Trump couldn't admit this. Because then the US President must admit that he had failed with his promise to quickly bring about peace in Ukraine.
Putin play temporarily, says Denysenko. He wanted to gradually increase the pressure on Trump, who wanted to record a foreign policy success.
Different Statements
Trump could therefore take over more and more positions by the Kremlin chief, other observers in Ukraine also fear. Politologist Wolodymyr Horbatsch, also on Facebook, pointed out that only in the statement of the Kremlin on Wednesday there was talk of the Russian conditions for complete ceasefire. This does not occur in the opinion of the White House.
However, this does not mean that Trump does not want to meet these conditions, says Horbatsch. Rather, Trump does not yet know how to fulfill Putin's wish. Putin's conditions amounted to a “demilitarization” of Ukraine, commented the political scientist – a demand that the Kremlin chief had formulated at the beginning of the Russian full invasion.
